Shameful Fads From The '90s

Stoner and slacker humor

Drug-fueled humor came to the forefront in the ‘90s thanks to shows like Beavis and Butthead and films like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Where else could you hear erudite lines like "Thinking sucks" and "I am the Great Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!” Sadly, time has taught us that although Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge was acting, Keanu Reeves probably wasn’t.

American Gladiators

For those who liked Family Feud, but detested the lack of violence, there was American Gladiators, a game show in which contestants matched themselves up against physical freakazoids with names like Laser, Viper and Ice. In fact, the only thing more difficult than the show’s challenges was differentiating between the male and female competitors.

lingo

Fitting in with the right crowd during the 1990s required not only walking the walk but also talking the talk. Take a trip down memory lane with the totally bodacious words below.

“Show me the money!”

Immortalized by Cuba Gooding Jr. in 1996’s Jerry Maguire, this colorful phrase was used to demand results of any kind, monetary or otherwise: “I love the black man! Show me the money!”

“Psych!”

A term meaning "gotcha," “psych” was used to reveal someone’s gullibility after someone told him a blatant falsehood: “I hear they’re giving out free fanny packs at the mall." "Really?""Psych!”

“Don't go there!”

This popular phrase was used to prevent someone from expanding upon sensitive subject matter: “Hey, Biff, remember the time you tried to start a Right Said Fred fan club?” “Oh, don’t go there!”

“Extreme”

A term used to denote any intense experience: “I just got back from, like, the Ace of Base concert and it was, like, totally extreme!”

“Not!”

This usually unassuming word was used at the end of a sentence to negate the previous statement: “I really like your fuchsia Zubaz pants. Not!”

blast to the past

English essayist Sydney Smith once said: “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” So, if you never owned a calculator watch or wore a pair of jams this is your chance to reclaim a lost part of your childhood. Ordinarily we’d say that you have only your shame to lose, but frankly, you lost that the first time you did the Macarena.